Iowa Beef Steakhouse up for sale

It will cost $200,000 to buy the Des Moines east-side eatery

Dec. 13, 2012

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One of the metro’s longtime, cook-your-own steak restaurants is for sale.

Iowa Beef Steakhouse owner Henry Schneider, who opened the restaurant at 1201 E. Euclid Ave. 30 years ago, wants to retire. He hopes to sell the business before the lease on the 6,240-square-foot building is up at the end of February. If he doesn’t sell the business, he will close it, he said.

Schneider is asking $200,000 for the business that he created in 1982. The property, which is owned by a group of investors, also is for sale. A Craigslist posting shows an asking price of $600,000. The 1.62-acre lot is a prime spot for redevelopment, according to listing information.

Iowa Beef Steakhouse has long been a staple of local steak eaters. “He has never changed the weight of his steaks,” said Debbie Shelley, manager of the restaurant. “They always have been and are still 14 to 28 ounces.”

Customers could always cook their own meat or have the restaurant’s staff do it, said Shelley, who has been at Iowa Beef since it opened.

In 2003, Money magazine named Iowa Beef Steakhouse one of the best American steakhouses. “Customers can cook their steaks themselves on a large charcoal grill. Yes, this arguably defeats the whole point of going out, but cooking your own has its benefits, like getting to choose your steak from the well-stocked meat case and the fun of standing shoulder-to-shoulder with other patrons at the grill, sharing the rush that comes from being at the nexus of meat and fire,” the magazine wrote.

The restaurant is open from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday. For more information, call 262-1138.